Biam building explosion: PBI claims premeditated incident; 2 arrested

The deadly explosion at a building of Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management (Biam) Foundation in Dhaka, which killed two individuals, was a premeditated act to destroy official documents, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has claimed.

"Jahidul Islam, administrative officer of Biam, and three individuals, including office assistant Abdul Malek and driver Faruk who were killed in that explosion, were involved in the plan," said Abdur Rahman, superintendent of police of Special Investigation and Operation unit of PBI, at a media briefing yesterday (28 July).

SP Abdur claimed that the mystery behind the explosion was unearthed after the arrest of Jahidul and his accomplice Ashraful Islam. The duo was apprehended on 25 July.

On 27 February night, the explosion occurred in room no 504 of the Biam Foundation building in Dhaka's Eskaton, which killed office assistant Md Abdul Malek Khan on spot and severely injured driver Faruk who died in hospital while undergoing treatment. 

The room was being used as the office of BCS (Administration) Multipurpose Cooperative Society.

Mashiur Rahman, general secretary of the cooperative society, filed a case with the Hatirjheel Police Station. Later, the case was handed over to the PBI for investigation.   

PBI collected and analysed the CCTV footage of the building in which an individual wearing a mask, gloves and a hat was seen.

"We confirmed the identity of the man with the aid of artificial intelligence. He was Ashraful who was later arrested from Kurigram," said the PBI official.

"Ashraful confessed his involvement and shared details about the incident during interrogation. Later, a team of PBI arrested Jahidul from Bashundhara Residential Area in Dhaka based on the information provided by Ashraful."

Ashraful was assigned to execute the plan by destroying the documents of the cooperative society, with help of Malek and Faruk, said SP Abdur. The trio was promised Tk10–12 lakh for executing the plan, he added.

"According to the plan, Malek and Faruk were instructed to set fire in the documents using petrol. Ashraful, meanwhile, was told to switch off the electricity. Ashraful was outside of the room while they entered the room and set the fire, which led to the explosion," SP Abdur further said.

Primary investigation suggested that the explosion had occurred before they left the room, resulting in their death, he added.